{"id":12198,"date":"2011-12-03T11:53:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T11:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thisblogrules.com\/?p=12198"},"modified":"2011-12-03T09:55:50","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T09:55:50","slug":"zeuss-5-most-bizarre-conquests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisblogrules.com\/zeuss-5-most-bizarre-conquests\/","title":{"rendered":"Zeus’ 5 Most Bizarre Conquests"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Ancient Greek mythology Zeus was king of the gods and, by and large,\u00a0did a pretty good job of it. Referred to as father even by those gods he\u00a0didn’t have a hand in conceiving, he overthrew his baby-eating father\u00a0Cronus and shared the world with his elder brothers Poseidon (who got the\u00a0world’s waters) and Hades (who was put in charge of the dead and thus the\u00a0Underworld). However, for all his godliness he had one fatal flaw: women.\u00a0This, perhaps understandably, pissed off his wife Hera no end, especially\u00a0considering the irony of her presiding over marriage and the union of the\u00a0marriage bed. But what were Zeus’s more unusual dalliances? He was a god,\u00a0after all, and a few dirty weekends disguised as business trips weren’t\u00a0exactly going to cut it.<\/p>\n

Metis<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Metis, the goddess of prudence, was said to be Zeus’s first love. However,\u00a0she went to great lengths to avoid succumbing to his advances. A\u00a0shapeshifter, she cycled through a number of forms with Zeus matching every\u00a0one until she finally gave in. However, it was prophesied that Metis would\u00a0bear a son capable of overthrowing Zeus, leading to him tricking her into\u00a0turning herself into a fly and swallowing her. However, Metis was already\u00a0pregnant, causing Zeus great pain as she hammered away inside his head\u00a0making weapons and armour for her unborn daughter. Eventually Zeus asked\u00a0Hephaestus to crack his head open, causing Athena to leap out fully grown\u00a0and complete with armour and weapons (Zeus was fine, by the way).<\/p>\n

Io<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps not one of Zeus’s best choices due to the fact that she was a\u00a0priestess of Hera, Io was one of several (named) nymphs to catch the eye of\u00a0the king of the gods. Zeus transformed her into a beautiful white heifer in\u00a0an attempt to hide her from Hera’s jealous gaze but she was not fooled.\u00a0Demanding the heifer as a gift (and with both of them knowing that Zeus’s\u00a0refusal would be indicative of his guilt), Hera took Io and placed her\u00a0under the watchful eye of Argus Panoptes (or rather eyes as he had well\u00a0over a hundred of them all over his body). Zeus ordered Hermes to kill the\u00a0unfortunate Argus, who according to Ovid did so by disguising himself as a\u00a0shepherd and charming all of his many eyes to sleep at once before doing\u00a0the deed. Hera then forced Io to wander the earth by plaguing her with a\u00a0stinging gadfly (arguably not the best of\u00a0Greek holidays<\/a>).\u00a0Zeus eventually restored her to human form, Io ultimately going on to marry\u00a0the Egyptian king Telegonus.<\/p>\n

Callisto<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Callisto was one of Artemis’s nymphs, and like all of the goddess’s\u00a0followers took a vow of chastity. This, of course, didn’t stop Zeus, who\u00a0assumed the form of Artemis herself in order to force himself on Callisto\u00a0when she was separated from the goddess and her fellows. Some months later\u00a0while she and the other nymphs were bathing together, Artemis realised that\u00a0Callisto was pregnant. The goddess cast her out, delivering the coup degrace after she gave birth by transforming her into a bear. Sixteen years\u00a0later, Callisto’s son encountered and almost killed his mother while\u00a0hunting in the forest, leading to Zeus avoiding this unbearable (yeah, I\u00a0went there) fate by placing them both in the sky as constellations (Ursa\u00a0Major and Ursa Minor respectively).<\/p>\n

Dana\u00eb<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Daughter of King Acrisius and Queen Eurydice of Argos. Acrisius sought an\u00a0heir, but upon consulting an oracle was told that if Dana\u00eb gave birth to a\u00a0son he would kill him. In an effort to prevent the possibility of her ever\u00a0conceiving, he locked her away in a bronze tower (essentially like some\u00a0kind of ancient Greek Rapunzel). Such trifles meant nothing to Zeus, of\u00a0course, who entered the tower as a shower of gold (no sniggering, please)\u00a0and the rest, as they say, is ancient mythological history. Acrisius did\u00a0not want to risk upsetting Zeus by attempting to kill one of his offspring\u00a0and so cast Dana\u00eb and the newborn Perseus into the sea in a wooden chest.\u00a0Poseidon allowed them to survive at Zeus’s behest, the pair washing ashore\u00a0on the island of Seriphos where they were taken in by the fisherman Dictys.\u00a0Despite Dana\u00eb spurning his advances, Dictys looked after both of them well and raised Perseus as his own.<\/p>\n

Leda<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Leda was the wife of the king of Sparta, but again this, of course, meant\u00a0little to Zeus. Disguising himself as a swan, he artfully fell into her\u00a0arms under the pretence of seeking protection from a hungry eagle.\u00a0Following their theoretically unlikely union (which is probably best not\u00a0thought about in too much detail) Leda laid two eggs, these hatching into\u00a0Clytemnestra, Castor, Pollux and Helen of Troy (although in some versions\u00a0of the story Helen’s mother is Nemesis, the resulting egg having simply\u00a0been given to Leda to raise). Clearly not that fussed about hiding his\u00a0exploits from Hera this time, Zeus created the Cygnus constellation in\u00a0order to celebrate Helen’s birth (the divine equivalent of bragging to\u00a0anyone who’d listen, perhaps?).<\/p>\n

Ella, while pretty sure she’s not in any gods’ little black books, is\u00a0pretty sure she could outrun Zeus if it came to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Ancient Greek mythology Zeus was king of the gods and, by and large,\u00a0did a pretty good job of it. Referred to as father even by those gods he\u00a0didn’t have a hand in conceiving, he overthrew his baby-eating father\u00a0Cronus and shared the world with his elder brothers Poseidon (who got the\u00a0world’s waters) and Hades (who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3515,3428,3518,3514,3516,3517,374,200,2096],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","yoast_head":"\nZeus' 5 Most Bizarre Conquests 2023 | This Blog Rules<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Ancient Greek mythology Zeus was king of the gods and, by and large,\u00a0did a pretty good job of it. 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